Will White Slavery Be Established?

2 67

RAILWAY CARMEN’S JOURNAL.

WILL WHITE SLAVERY BE ES¬
TABLISHED?

Whether labor ia advancing or losing
ground is a question that may startle
some readers, but when we consider the
remarkable events which have turned
the eyes of all civilization upon labor
circles during the past twelve months we
must admit that the question is a perti¬
nent one. Wi hOut a doubt the United
States h**8 been makiog very important
additions to the history of the world
during the past year. Nobody will ques¬
tion that what has occurred in labor
circles ainoe last spriog is of more conse¬
quence, and is farther reaching in its
effects, than the events of any quarter of
a century of labor history that has pre
ceded this single remarkable year. At no
time sinoe the terrible butchery of men
prominent in the labor movement, which
followed the uprising of the English
laborers in 13S1 when 1500 of them were
put to death, has th re been such bold
and determined attempts to crush out
the labor movement as this year has wit¬
nessed.

While the series of .events in the labor
world, embracing Coal Greek, Coeur
d'Alene, Homestead, Buffalo, and now
Toledo, have startled and alarmed the
moat conservative and the most hopeful
it can hardly be said that the full signifi¬
cance of the movement on the part of
the mbneyed classes has dawned upon
the laboring people. We have been so
busy boasting of our liberty and indepen-
pence while the enemy perfected the
clans of enslavement that it is likely to
take us some time to grasp the situation

It has oeen said that the laboring
man's brain will not work until his
stomach is empty, and it may be added
that he «ill not stop boasting hie inde¬
pendence until he is completely enslaved.
We no longer have any independence and
perhaps the surest way to arouse the
laboring people to a sense of their danger
is to frankly admit the truth.

Let us be honest about it The em¬
ploying classes have the laws, the courts
to apply them and the military power to

enforce the mandates of the courts.
What more does any class need to com¬
pletely enslave any other class? To get
down to the real question involved,
wherein is the material difference be¬
tween the black slaves of thirty years
ago and the white ones of today?

The wage9 of the black slave were
fixed without his consent Tn-*y were
paid in food, clothing and shelter. His
occupation was chosen for him and he
could not change it nor qnit work of his
own accord. If he undertook to increase
his wages (get more to eat and wear) he
was forcibly prevented and punished.
If he attempted to quit work (run away)
he was seized aod brought back, puo-
ished for his “crime” and kept at work
under guard. He labored a li etime, got
only a portion of the wealth he created
and died as he had lived, in poverty.

Iq what important point, under our
rapidly changing conditio , doee the
white wage slave of today differ? His
wages are as certainly fixed without his
oonsent because, if he attempts to raise
them as at Homestead, capital has the
power to lock him out and starve him
into acceptance as happened there.
Theee wages are paid in cash, but since
that cash is barely enough to buy about
the same food, clothing and shelter given
the black slave where is the difference?

Up to the present time the white la¬
borer has been free in the matter of occu¬
pation and at liberty to quit work at will.
But the Toledo injunction cases have
established another “right” for capital—
the right to forbid labor to quit its ser¬
vice at all. It is true that this is done
only in a single business—railroading—
but it has only begun. It is also true
that it is done under cover of a pretense
of protecting the welfare of the public.
But that is of no consequence. Anything
can be brought within range of the same
flimsy excuse. For example, if the farm
hands objected to working for their rate
of pay it could be held that their failure
to work endangered the public's food
supply, and a strike of the weavers could
be suppressed by the courts because the

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268

RAILWAY CARMEN’S JOURNAL.

textile oat pat would be insufficient for
public use.

The question is not whether the rulings
of the courts can be sustained by justice.
The fact is that they will be sustained
by the jails. The man who looks upon
the past record of the plutocracy and
then expects things to be done because
they are right is simply insane. The
laborer wbo thinks that surely so great
a wrong as literally forcing him to accept
the wages which the employing class is
pleased to offer or be imprisoned, would
not be perpetrated by American courts
will do well to remember that these
same courts have time and again upheld
human slavery and punished those who
did not submit. How much does a well
fed aristocrat care whether a man’s skin
is white or black?

As the case now stands the laboring
man may go to work when he pleases at
the wages then paid. If be attempts to
raise them he can be locked out. If he
tries to keep others from taking his
place he can be sent to the penitentiary
for rioting (witness Homestead). If he
objects to scabs who will work for a
lower rate they are put in his place by
the troops (witness Buffalo). If he, aside
from the question of wages or scabs,
peaceably quits work he can't conscienti¬
ously do he is arrested and held in “con¬
tempt of court" and made to a ork or go
to jail (witness Toledo).

Now, this is the beginning. It is merely
the first step in plutocracy’s program of
white slavery. It requires but little use
of the imagination to see rapid changes
for the worse in the lot of the laboring
man. Look at the progress toward serf¬
dom that has been made in a single year!
Twelve months ago labor had something
to say about wages. Today it has noth¬
ing. Then we could strike with some
show of success. Now we can not. At
that time our worst enemy was the Pink¬
erton thugs who could be met on even
terms and against whom public senti¬
ment was strong. At present it is the
militia, respected by the people and
backed by the state itself. A year ago

not even a corporation thought of deny
ing the right of any man to quit v ork at
any time or place. Now the courts have
declared him to have no such right. In
the face of this who will venture to guess
what the next year will develops?

There are a few things it is well to re¬
member. One is that enough has already
been done to establish the fact that the
moneyed class intend to use the courts,
the penitentiaries and the military to the
severest point possible in crushing labor.
Another is that there will be no difficulty
in finding precedents for any atrocity.
“What has once been done can be done
again" may become plutocracy’s motto.
Let us remember that the justices of the
peace, who belonged to the employing
classes, once fixed the wages of labor;
that anybody who refused to work for
that price was sent to jail until they
would; that any attempt to raise wages
was a crime punishable by imprisonment;
that a code of laws was in force to keep
the laborer in practically the same con¬
dition as the black slaves before referred
to and that these laws were sternly en¬
forced by penalties ranging from a day
in jail to hanging by the neck until dead.
Let us remember, too, that our present
organizations are young and that it is
only within a few years that theyhave
seriously interfered with the triumphant
march of plutocracy. Having found
them a barrier in the way, the plutocrats
have decreed their destruction and they
will stop short of no infamy in a most
determined effort to revive the white
slavery of the past.

There will be those who doubt that the
civil machinery of our country could be
used for such a porpoee. It does seem
improbable now but it may not seem at
all so tomorrow. Who, a month ago
would have believed our courts oould
have been used to compel a man to work
against his will and his conscience? Who
will be surprised if the corporations find
a way to compel a man to go from one
road to another and scab outright to
“protect the traveling public?" Nobody.

In the light of recent events it is a

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RAILWAY CARMEN’S JOURNAL. 269

temperate statement to say that labor is
losing ground and is falling back danger*
onsly near the point of actual slavery.
It is of no consequence whether cash is
paid as wages if the pay amounts only 1 1
food, clothing and shelter. It is imma¬
terial whether he is kept at work by an
overseer or a court. It is of little im¬
portance whether he is guarded by a
bloodhound or a soldier. It is of no mo¬
ment whether he is ordered to work by
a master or a steam whistle or whether
he is driven by a whip or by the pangs
of hunger. And what is to be done
about it all? That is the problem we face
today. Labor must solve it—and right
speedily, too—or humbly kneel at the
feet of the triumphant plutocracy.

L. W. Rogers.

EXPELLED MEMBERS.

This is my introduction in writing to
the Journal. I would have written be¬
fore but had nothing worth writing
about. I wish to say a few words about
expelled members, and the cause of my
so wishing is thfe action of the members
of the Lis Vegas Lodge. There are five
in particular, viz.: John Samberson,Fred
Brefield, John Elmer, John Moskins and
Joseph Kennedy. The above named,
when the carmen were trying to secure a
schedule, were so afraid of their posi¬
tions and so contemptible that they not
only quit the order, but wrote to Mr.
John Player not to pay any attention to
the carmen, and if they needed any help
they (the worse than scabs) would stand
by them. The last one named was un¬
der the influence of liquor when he
signed this letter, and is sorry, and has
pride and principle enough not to at¬
tempt to be reinstated in the order he so
greatly insulted. Now, ’tis true the
names of all the expelled members are
printed in the Journal, but how many
of us are able to remember back six
months or a year the names of those ex¬
pelled at that time. I think it would be
a very good thing if each lodge were to
draw up a sort of a black ball list and
put it up in some prominent place in the

lodge room, and through the help of the
Journal put the name of all the expelled
and such as those who withdrew from
the Las Vegas Lodge on it. Then when
a man presented himself as a carman,
and we had any doubt as to his being
genuine or not, we could refer to the
great register and settle our doubts; this
way is the only way 1 can see that we
can protect ourselves, for we cannot
change the signs and passwords every
time a member is expelled; and if they
have the signs how are we going to tell?
A man went through Raton, N. M., about
seven weeks ago and olaimed to be a car¬
man. He had the proper signs, but his
card was issued for a year, and on that
account they mistrusted him. Had they
then the great register to refer to they
could, easily have settled it; but they
thought (when they hadn’t sufficient
proof to think otherwise) that it was a
fault of the person issuing the card, and
they helped him as these gentlemanly
boys always .help a carman. Now, I
haven’t any idea this will be published,
for it is too lengthy and contains very
little, but I hope you will have read it
through be ore sending it to the waste
basket. Dude Car Whacker.

It is again necessary to call attention
to the matter in which monthly and
quarterly reports are forwarded, (if sent
at all). Borne of our lodges are giving
this matter of reports particular atten¬
tion, while others seem to put it off from
one meeting to another, and when it is
forwarded is made out on ordinary paper
with but half the information required.
Give this matter your careful and prompt
attention and you will be surprised to
find how easy it is to do things right.

Our Grand Chief writes us from Den¬
ver, Col., that the outlook of our Brother¬
hood is most bright in that section.
Lodges visited on the trip are adding
new members, and prospering gen erally
He is to reach Portland, Tacoma, Ellens-
burg and other points on the coast before
his return.

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